life in this republic

a trip to the emergency room: part 3

Not too long after, the nurse emerges again and looks directly at me and invites us into the inner sanctum. "Wow, is this really happening?", I grin excitedly as if my name had just been called on Wheel of Fortune. "Krista Coyan and her daughter with the maybe-broken arm, COME ON DOWN!!!"

We enter a cramped closet of a room and are pointed to a chair next to the nurse's desk. One chair, given, of course, to the kid with the maybe-broken arm. Although, I do feel as though I've been doing all the work here, perhaps I'll get something from the snack machine as a treat to myself. Hmmm.

Surveying my surroundings as the nurse busily types away on her computer I notice, not 3 feet away from us, a bed with a man lying on it receiving some sort of procedure on his nasty infected toes. Gross. Can't I have your chair, Roxie? I think I'm going to be sick.

We answer all the nurse's questions, well, I do, as Roxie has conveniently forgotton how to speak Czech.  The nurse presses a couple of buttons on her keyboard and I hear the whirring of a printer. In what could be stated as one of the coolest things to ever happen (at least today) I am presented with a white piece of paper. Of my very own. I get to walk out waving it like the winner of the lottery.

Roxie is now in a lot of discomfort.

The nurse directs us to the radiology department and tells us to ring the bell. The radiology department consists of three doors numbered 1, 2 and 3. No other signage...oh, except for that cool triple triangle symbol for radioactivity. But, we see that sign alot here since we live so close to Europe's largest nuclear reactor. Outside door number 1 is a switch that has the word "bell" taped on it haphazardly. I press "bell" and we sit and wait. A nice doctor lady pokes her head out and tells us to go to door number 3 and wait. So we sit outside door number three. A few minutes later she invites us in and I see the same machine that x-rayed my hand and shoulder after my bike accident. It is completely cool. She gently manipulates Roxie's arm and x-rays her 3 times. While Roxie gets zapped with radioactivity, I hide out with the doctor in her little cubbyhole and look at the cool bones in my baby girl's arm. I don't see any breaks, but I don't have medical degrees and therefore cannot be trusted. Roxie doesn't say a word, but afterward tells me that it was really painful.

We have a hard time leaving room 3 because our path is blocked by the grandma on the gurney and an entire family surrounding their son who is in a hospital wheelchair. We have to slide grandma out of the way to make our retreat. She isn't looking like she's feeling too well. Poor grandma...

Joining Dan once again in the waiting room, we find him using his time wisely playing a game on his ipad.

It is definitely time for a refreshment. I take Roxie to the snack machine and she picks out a ginger ale.

White paper: check
X-rays: check
Snack machine: check

A little girl is brought in being carried by her father. She has blood dripping down her leg. It is bandaged using a handkerchief, probably from her dad's pocket. They have to wait through the same process that has taken us almost 2 hours.

We are now watching Czech commercials on the TV and wondering if soon we will be visiting the "sadrovna" (the room where they make casts.)

Roxie isn't feeling so well.

More and more people are coming in the emergency room now. It is getting quite full. I guess lots of people wait until after work to get injured. That's nice of them.

A different door opens. Every head turns in unison at the sound of that door opening. Our nurse comes out and looks at us. Some lady gets in our way and tries to give the nurse her insurance card. I felt like I should tell her that this isn't the right door and she must hover around The Door over there, but I was too eager to go inside and see The Doctor.

The Doctor looked like he was 12. That's cool, Doogie Howser. As long as he can read x-rays better than me he could be 5 for all I care. And my butt hurts from sitting on the hard plastic chairs for 2 hours.

He asked the nurse if I speak Czech and she said I spoke beautifully. That was awesome. He looked over the x-rays, massaged Roxie's arm (the 4th person to do so...no wonder her arm was killing her) and said she didn't have a broken arm, merely a sprained elbow. Interesting. He prescribed rest, ice and a cool sling.

3 hours in Emergency, x-rays, entertainment: 1,500 crowns
No broken arm: fabulous
Cool sling: amazing
Xtra Attention TM: priceless